Sen. Ted Cruz said the confirmation of federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is all but certain.
During a Washington Post Live interview on Tuesday, the Texan Republican said Republicans in the Senate “have the votes” to confirm Barrett, who he called a “substantive and scholarly” choice for the top court in the land.
“We’ll get it done,” Cruz said. “Two Republicans have publicly expressed concern, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski. Assuming they vote no, and I don’t know that either one has actually put in concrete that they will vote, but even if they vote no, as I see it, we have a solid 51 votes right now.”
.@SenTedCruz said he’s confident Republicans have the votes to confirm Amy Coney Barrett. https://t.co/DjyNr6SR4w #postlive pic.twitter.com/kPJKMonbAb
— Washington Post Live (@postlive) October 6, 2020
Republicans hold a narrow margin in the Senate, with only 53 of the Senate’s 100 votes. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, died last month at her home in Washington after a long battle with cancer, creating a vacancy on the court.
When asked what advice he would give to Barrett before the grueling confirmation process scheduled to begin on Monday, Oct. 12, Cruz said he would tell her to be “boring” so as to deflect any potential controversy that could arise from multiple days of questioning by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Cruz warned of a “Spartacus” moment from Senate Democrats, referring to comments by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker during the confirmation process for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, suggesting might attack Barrett whose nomination would likely cement a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court for years to come.
The senator commended Barrett’s confident response to being placed under a media microscope following her nomination to the court.
“A month ago, this woman was a law professor and federal judge in Indiana. She could go walk in the park, and nobody knew who she was. And in the last month, the entire world has descended upon her, she’s in the middle of this maelstrom of political and press attacks,” he said.
